Resident Evil 7 Coming to Switch – But Only via the Cloud

Capcom has announced a surprise port for the latest Resident Evil game for the Nintendo Switch, but even more surprising is the way it will work.

After all the initial hype around PlayStation Now and Crackdown 3’s multiplayer mode, cloud gaming seems to have been quietly put on the backburner by most games companies – a technology whose time has not yet come.

So it’s a bit of a shocker that the first high profile use of it in a major game is… Resident Evil 7: Gold Edition on the Nintendo Switch.

Capcom has just announced the port as coming out on the’ 24th May, but the for the moment at least it’ll be Japanese only (there isn’t even English language support in the current version).

And obviously, because all the data is being streamed online, it’ll require a permanent Internet connection.

In this context, running via the cloud means that none of the game is stored on the console itself – either via cartridge or digital download – and is instead streamed in real-time like a Netflix movie.

Many predict this will be the future of gaming, and of games consoles, but it’s rarely ever been used for a new, high-profile console title like this.

Although Capcom has experimented with the concept before with Dragon Quest X for 3DS, but again only in Japan.

According to the official website you’ll get a free 15-minute demo, to make sure you’ve got a good enough connection for it to be worth your while, and 180 days of playtime costs the equivalent of around £13 (so it doesn’t seem as if you buy the game, or access to it, permanently).

Ordinarily, the simple fact that a game designed for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 is on the Switch would be noteworthy in itself, but from what can be seen in the video it does look seem to be a surprisingly accurate port.

This is all clearly part of a continuing experiment on Capcom’s part, but if it’s successful it could have a profound influence on the future of not just Nintendo’s console but all video game formats in the future.